Renault is predicting “no good news” on the European automotive market until 2016 as the Continent continues to act as a giant anchor on manufacturers’ global competitivity.
Only yesterday (7 March), UK forecasters, LMC Automotive, said Western Europe remained ‘desperately weak’ with car sales plummeting 10.4% in February and a Seasonally Adjusted Annualised Rate (SAAR) of sales at a miserly 11.4m units.
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LMC said that it is forecasting a fall of 4% to the Western European automotive market this year, meaning 2013 would finish at around 11.3m units, some 3.5m units below the 2007 result.
“I consider between now and 2016, there will be no good news,” Renault CEO, Carlos Ghosn, said at this week’s Geneva motor show in comments confirmed to just-auto by a Renault spokesperson.
“Europe will be difficult for the next five years – [however], the rest of the world is going well – 2013 will be another record year overall with total volume up 3%-4%.”
The Renault chief did offer some crumb of comfort to the battered Euro – the currency which many had predicted would start to show severe cracks as successive and massive bailouts of hugely indebted peripheral Mediterranean countries took their toll.
“One or two years [ago], people were questioning whether we could keep the Euro currency, whether Italy, Spain, Greece would ever stay in the European Union,” said Ghosn.
“We are seeing correction taking place.”
